


Saying Your Names

by icedmachinery, icemachine



Category: Doom Patrol (TV)
Genre: Gen, Names, Platonic Soulmates, they hold power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24798184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedmachinery/pseuds/icedmachinery, https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemachine/pseuds/icemachine
Summary: In which Larry learns Keeg's name, and doesn't stop saying it.
Relationships: Keeg Bovo & Larry Trainor
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	Saying Your Names

**Author's Note:**

> title: saying your names by siken

He had written it on Larry’s bedroom wall, dark-void marker—-it resembled somewhat of a beginning, the way the words looked like waves of black holes against concrete & how they were barely legible but said the two holiest words possible:  _ KEEG BOVO. _

Keeg Bovo.

During Larry’s physical lack of consciousness he dreamed about: acceptance and during Larry’s physical lack of consciousness he woke up in a room that resembled a museum without any exhibits or people and thought:  _ this is where I am now. I am the exhibits. I am going to put the rest of my life in a glass frame and hang it here and it will be a beautiful painting of what love is supposed to look like  _ and he dreamed about: acceptance.

Keeg’s name carved into his chest, Keeg Bovo like a second scarring. He experiences a shiver for the first time since he became the sickness upon waking up & looking at the words & looking at the words like they were written by the God that abandoned him but this is a different divine being with different plans and this being has written its name on Larry’s wall, on every limb of Larry’s unsightly frame. The name is, of course, Keeg Bovo, it is always Keeg Bovo.

Seconds pass & eventually he realizes that he can reach out and touch the words like grasping faith, a desolate and disillusioned individual finding a new purpose ( _ he is going to atone and fill the museum of emptiness with the new unearthed fondness) (this is why Keeg showed him the museum, to rebuild, he can rebuild) _ . He unbandages two fingers and places them against the letters, tries to feel what Keeg — Keeg  _ Bovo —-  _ felt as he wrote the words, as his unsteady hands brushed against the wall with intent. To share something with Larry, a revelation.

He also tries to imagine what it would feel like, to touch Keeg, the Spirit he had housed for decades within, and the Spirit that chose him over freedom, over a craving and a lust. He would have died for Keeg Bovo (Keeg) (Bovo), he would have allowed himself to burn again, over and over in a repetitive dance, if Keeg allowed it, so that Keeg (Bovo) could experience the freedom that he was never given.

Keeg had touched him earlier, Keeg had placed Keeg’s hand - one hand, on the side of his face, gripping and touching and weightless-heavy. It was to connect the mind, to make an inextricable bond between Larry’s consciousness and Keeg’s consciousness. Larry immediately wonders in every color, every texture, every realm, if Keeg (Bovo)’s mind is enlightened, if it is different - superior in scientific terminology - different. He is an interdimensional being; his mind has to be different, his composition is different, he should not exist in this universe but does anyway and Larry thinks: acceptance. Rebuilding. On the other hand - he valued Larry’s survival over his own freedom. How can someone so enlightened see any worth in Larry Trainor? Larry thinks:  _ I am going to build myself a cocoon in these walls. I am going to rebuild and I am going to categorize my life into moments and thoughts and emotions and I’m not going to stop until I figure it out. _ If this being that has ascended humanity can see good in him, perhaps it is true, perhaps he  _ does  _ hold worth.

  
  


He imagines what it would feel like to touch Keeg (Bovo) (Keeg Bovo) (he keeps repeating the name in his mind like reciting a holy text) bare, unbandaged. After the accident his ability to feel sensation was limited; the only tangible experience was torture, but something inside of him - perhaps knowledge left inside of the museum that Keeg Bovo had showed him prior to this - knows animal-instinct that he would be able to feel it. Keeg Bovo’s composition is, again, different; he sparks and lights up the world and the above-world; his electric form would not offend Larry’s integumentary. It might feel like flying again. Could Keeg (Bovo) (Keeg Bovo) do that — make him fly again in his dreams? He knows the answer and flies every day in the waking world, soars similar.

Knowing the name of the thing that haunted him for six decades elicits an indecipherable feeling within Larry. Keeg Bovo had saved him —- but Keeg Bovo destroyed their bus, Keeg Bovo put him on a ceiling rafter. Larry holds the blame for these incidents, knows this. He was never open to Keeg in the past. He was never open in the past; always hidden inside of himself. In some ways he is like Keeg Bovo, the Spirit, the energy that nests—-both of them are hidden, both of them are scarred, both of them only rise when forced to by the world.

He finally allows himself to say it, gasps for a surrounding air. Larry is drowning - suffocating - feels a different grip around his neck. “Keeg,” he says slowly, like an invocation. “Keeg — Keeg  _ Bovo. _ ”

Larry thinks:  _ You showed me the museum of us. Do we live here now? Can we make it ours? _

Once he can choke out the words, he whispers them repeatedly, unable to stop himself. 

_ Keeg Bovo,  _ like he’s saying God’s name.  _ Keeg Bovo,  _ like careful words of poetry.  _ Keeg Bovo,  _ like scripture. 

_ Keeg Bovo,  _ like a becoming.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Oof ! I have feelings and this is messy anyway kudos+comment if enjoyed pwease


End file.
